CES: Qualcomm opens the big show for 1st time

It announces its most powerful chip -- one that puts it head-to-head with Intel

Indeed, smartphone momentum is on the rise. About 300 million smartphones were sold worldwide during the first half of 2012, up 45 percent from a year earlier. Still, that was only 39 percent of all mobile phones shipped.

Many of those upgrades will occur in emerging countries, where high-speed wireless network connections are forecast to rise from 800 million in 2011 to 2.7 billion by 2016.

“There is an entire generation now that essentially has been born mobile,” said Jacobs.

Jacobs predicts that the amount of data flowing over wireless networks will drastically increase in recent years, as TVs, tablets, computers, home security sensors, cars and smartphones all communicate with each other wirelessly.

Jacobs thinks smartphones will become the "digital sixth sense" that interacts and filters all of the wireless digital data swirling around us. And he envisions widespread deployment of small, inexpensive cellular base stations in homes and offices to handle swelling data traffic.

And Jacobs said mobility has the potential to transform industries ranging from entertainment to health care to education. Wireless monitors already are being produced that provide real time data for patients with diabetes and other health issues – spotting problems earlier with the aim of reducing costs.

Qualcomm is sponsoring a $10 million X-Prize competition to boost the development of a handheld health scanner similar to the fictional Tricorder of the Star Trek series.

“I totally believe this is possible and I believe this is going to revolutionize health care,” he said. More than 255 teams from 35 countries have pre-registered for the contest.